News Apple coughs to MacBook, MacBook Pro keyboard flaw

Typo: theire.

I tested out the new Mac keyboards in a shop, because I was thinking about buying a "cheapish" one for development purposes. Two minutes with it convinced me that the modern Macbook keyboards are not fit for purpose. They look great, but the travel is so minimal and the stop so abrupt that it's not comfortable to type on, even just a couple of sentences.

 

Well we can't mock Apple any more for the highway robbery prices they charge to get more RAM in their PCs since all RAM is now stupidly priced, so Apple had to go back to the lab and come up with a new way to infuriate the public.

 

Clearly they weren't making enough of a margin on their desktop/laptop line, so they had to start cheaping out!

 

Not a flaw, everyone is using it wrong

 

...no? They've been making monumentally dumb design decisions for as long as i've paid attention.

Apple's mice and keyboards have, imo, always been rubbish.

 

It 'twas in the opening bold paragraph, and isn't there any more, so whatever it was, it's sorted. You have magic, sir.

To be honest, I don't. Well, maybe I remember the old tiny ~8" CRT all-in-one Apples that the Design/Technology department at my secondary school had, but while the keyboards were good for them, the mice were horrible and the screen seemed designed to make you need glasses as a 14 year old...

The "fruit coloured" all-in-one CRT Macs were horrible because the ones my colleagues used were always overheating. About the only good Mac I've ever used was the first-gen Mac Pro, but even then Mac OSX was a steaming pile of [censored]. The guy I worked next to during my PhD used a Mac and it was always doing the spinning-rainbow-wheel-of-death "freeze", where you can't actually do anything, but because it hadn't BSOD'd, it hadn't "crashed". I always wondered how it was possible to mess up BSD so badly. My old boss swore by his Macbook Pro until the GPU decided to desolder itself... then he swore at it, instead.

I really have no idea where Apple got their reputation for solid manufacture, except possible the 5th gen (I think it was) iPod Classic (HDD, 160GB, colour screen, click wheel) because that was the best portable music player I've every owned in terms of capacity, battery life, durability and usability. That thing went through everything and came out with just the back scuffed a bit.

Agree pretty much 100% with that assessment.

...

edit: I think the next Macbook keyboard will be haptic touchbar for the whole keyboard. No keys breaking due to dust/moisture ingress, all form minimal function...

 

Pretty much anyone with eyes said as much as soon as they unveiled it.

...and lets not forget they were forced into the Mac Pro redeisgn in the first place because iirc they couldn't guarantee to the EU's satisfaction that the PSU in the old tower Mac Pro wouldn't electrocute you.

 

Teamwork, bit has it.

I saw a mini-ITX case that was based on cloning the Mac Dustbin design. Lemme find it. Here we are: Kuro Tsudsumi. I almost bought one for the giggles.

 

I wouldn't be surprised tbh...
https://www.cnet.com/news/lenovo-gives-sneak-peek-of-dual-screen-yoga-book-2-and-yoga-book-3/

 

No, not at all.

I remmber lots and lots of keyboard with self extracting keys, mice that ate their own cables, overheating Mac Book Pros and so on.

Although R2Scream2 and the current systems that are incapable of adequately cooling themselves is the low point of Apple PC design to date. The emphasis seems to be entirely on aesthetics now, the butterfly keyboards being another symptom of that.

 

Imo Apple's deisgn, certainly in the Cook'd Apple era, is less about what the end-user wants/needs [The end user wants/needs what we tell them they want/need --Jobs] and usability and more about stroking Ive's ego.

 

Apple design of old always made me sad that it was such an arseache to swap the guts of a laptop over.

I'd love a second/third generation MBP with none of the apple branding, and a modern motherboard with USB3 and a decent display. IMO, those are the peak of Apple design for laptops. G5 PowerMac for desktops.

Hell, I loved that the iBooks used to be great for colour swaps - Just sand out the white and spray in the colour of choice. Mine was Ford Magnum Grey.

 

I don't doubt it is horrible but just like other silly ideas (for example one single port on a laptop) it can easily find its way into products.

 

I really like the idea of a dual screen laptop provided both were pen enabled and that the pen was using Wacom or N-Trig technology. I could have my workspace on the bottom with tool selection and overview on top.

Although I would have to plug in a keyboard and mouse as well, which might undermine the whole idea a bit. But it's still something I can see appealing to creative types if done right.